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'Ozone thieves' and 'hot house paradise' : epistemic communities as cultural entrepreneurs and the reenchantment of sublunar space : a sociological analysis of the media discourse on the greenhouse effect in the Federal Republic of Germany 1970-1995
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Florence : European University Institute, 1997
EUI; SPS; PhD Thesis
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VIEHOEVER, Willy, ‘Ozone thieves’ and ’hot house paradise’ : epistemic communities as cultural entrepreneurs and the reenchantment of sublunar space : a sociological analysis of the media discourse on the greenhouse effect in the Federal Republic of Germany 1970-1995, Florence : European University Institute, 1997, EUI, SPS, PhD Thesis - https://hdl.handle.net/1814/5423
Abstract
What's news? In a recent issue of the German weekly Die Zeit, Wamfried Dettling making sociology’s decay subject of a polemic asserts that modem risk societies on the one hand consider sociologists competent to interpret the global environmental crisis while on the other hand it dethroning sociology and with it any hopes understanding and staging the unfolding social drama. The course of modem risk society is no longer shaped by class struggles and social movements, he argues. Rather risk societies are characterised by developments at a global environmental level, which nobody, especially no sociologist, is able to understand. Sociology no longer has the theoretical frameworks, skills and methods for understanding the processes and developments in global risk societies. Instead, he claims that climatologists and other expert communities have taken over sociologist’s role of interpreting the world without, however, transforming climatology and ecology into a guiding science (Leitwissenschaft) (Dettling 1996 p. 23). This thesis will challenge both assumptions. First it is assumed that climate change epistemic communities provide societies with narratives on global environmental risks, Epistemic communities are more than knowledge providers. They are cultural entrepreneurs contributing to the reenchantment of the sublunar space. In doing so, during the last two decades they have challenged the symbolic foundations of Western world views based on the idea of "man mastering nature" which shaped our utilitarian relation to nature (Eder 1988,1996). Still, the symbolic struggle between the spirits of enviromentalism and capitalism is going on. Man’s relation to nature is constantly under review. However, rather than social movements in the last decade it has been epistemic communities who have provided our emerging "global society" with new orientations thanks to communties of concerned scientists like Stephen Schneider, James Hansen, Wilfrid Bach, Hartmut Grassl, Paul Crutzen among many others directing our attention to the limits of growth and the severe consequences man’s utilitarian relation will have for the common good of the global atmosphere.
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Examining board: Prof. Dr. Klaus Eder (supervisor) (Humboldt Universität Berlin) ; Prof. Dr. Bernhard Giesen (Universität Giessen) ; Prof. Dr. Adrienne Héritier (European University Institute) ; Prof. Dr. Nico Stehr (Max Planck-Institut, Hamburg)
Defence date: 23 January 1998
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digitised archive of EUI PhD theses completed between 2013 and 2017
First made available in Open Access: 21 August 2024
Defence date: 23 January 1998
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digitised archive of EUI PhD theses completed between 2013 and 2017
First made available in Open Access: 21 August 2024